


Tomatoes and a Cute Physics Teacher

by SmolBean9



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alfred is the annoying shit in the back, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Angst, Background FrUk - Freeform, Bad Touch Trio | Bad Friend Trio, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, I high key ship rusame, Lovino and Antonio are teachers, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, but if it makes a difference, interpretable ameripan or rusame, tbh alfred is just gay with everyone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-21 00:31:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21065774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmolBean9/pseuds/SmolBean9
Summary: Antonio is a high school Spanish teacher, and will do anything to gain the affections of the new physics teacher. From anonymous notes to baskets of tomatoes, Antonio works his hardest to get Lovino, with a little help from the rest of the school, or course.





	Tomatoes and a Cute Physics Teacher

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Thank you for clicking on my story! If you see any mistakes, please let me know in the comments and I will fix them :>

Mr. Fernandez Carriedo rushed into the teachers lounge, tossing his tote bag on the table before hurriedly putting a paper into the copier. It was the first day of school, and of course he forgot to make copies of the syllabus for his students. Francis Bonnefoy, the Culinary Arts teacher, looked at him with an amused smirk from the other end of the teachers lounge. “Did you forget to copy the syllabuses again?”   
Antonio whipped around to face the voice. “Oh, hola, amigo!” He flashed a bright smile at the other. “I may or may not have forgotten to copy a few papers I need,” The copier beeped, and Antonio turned his attention back to it. Just about every year, he inevitably forgot to do something before the first day of school, be it copies of worksheets, or organizing his desk. Despite having an entire week to get everything together before school officially started, Antonio was still a hot mess, and it would probably stay that way till about halfway through first quarter. Other than an extreme lack of organization skills, he was a fairly good teacher, and most of his students enjoyed his class. He was a Spanish teacher, and despite the heavy workload due to the fact he was the only Spanish teacher, he loved his job. Antonio grabbed the papers the copier spit out, and then turned to leave the teachers lounge, humming as he walked towards the staff boxes, excited to begin the first day of school.  
~  
After 4th period, lunch had officially started, and Antonio walked down to the J hall, before entering the school auto shop garage. “Hola, amigos!” He grinned brightly and set his lunch on one of the tables.   
“Hey Toni!” Gilbert, the mechanics teacher, smiled back as Francis gave a wave. Every lunch for the past few years, Francis, Gilbert, and Antonio ate together. Most lunches were just Francis gossiping and idle chit chat. As Gilbert talked about his beloved bird’s antics, and Francis complained about the AP Literature teacher, Antonio laughed along with his friends. He loved having summers off, but he had truly missed chatting with his closest friends. Somehow the conversation had turned to the new physics teacher, Mr. Vargas.   
“So Toni,” Francis drawled, resting his chin on his hand. “Have you talked to the new physics teacher you’ve been eyeing up?”   
Antonio coughed, and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Is it really that obvious?”   
“Toni, we’ve known you for over ten years. It is incredibly obvious,” Gilbert piped.   
“Ay, well, me and Lovi went to college together a few years back. He’s really cute, no?” Antonio sighed and set his fork down. “I’ve been wanting to go up and talk to him, but everytime I try, he’s always busy, or runs off before I can get close to him. So, I left him an anonymous note in his box earlier today!”   
“Well, I wish you the best of luck, mon ami,” Francis hummed, already planning the ways he could play matchmaker in his head. After all, Lord knows Antonio’s too stupid to win him over without help.  
~  
As Lovino grabbed all of the informational papers from his box, he noticed a lonesome sheet of loose leaf paper in the back, creased across the middle with a fold. He grabbed it and unfolded it, running his eyes across the paper. A heavy blush crept onto Lovino’s face as he scanned the contents of the note.  
Grumbling, he stuffed the note in his back pocket as heat spread across his face. Who had sent the damn thing, and why? He had only been here a week, and most of that time was spent setting up his classroom. He doubted that was enough time to earn someone’s affections to this degree. Lovino sighed, pushing the thoughts to the back of his head for another time. His first period class started in ten minutes, and he’d like to be in the classroom before the students started flooding in.   
~  
“Good morning, class. My name is Mr. Vargas, and I will be your physics teacher this year. On the syllabus, you’ll see the class rules, and materials you need to have by Thursday,” He paced across the front of the room whilst talking. Stopping by his desk off to the side, Lovino crossed his arms. “Now, let's get to know each other a little bit, no? You will all stand up, one at a time, and say your name, and one fun fact about you, starting with you,” He pointed to a shy-looking kid with wavy hair sitting in the front corner.   
“The blonde boy stood up, and crossed his right arm across his midriff in a defensively. "I'm Matthew Williams, and I like polar bears," he spoke quickly and quietly, almost to the point where Lovino couldn't hear him. He sat back down quickly, clearly having been visibly nervous about speaking in front of the class.   
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you. Would you mind standing up and saying that again?” Lovino smirked a little. Matthew stood once more and choked out his previous statement, but this time a little louder, clearly embarrassed.   
"That's my brother! You go, Matthew!" A loud shout rang out from the back of the class, followed by muffled giggles.   
Lovino sighed, already disliking whatever noisy brat in the back of the class had done that. "Alright, next person?"   
~  
Most of the introductions throughout the day were fairly normal, except for a tall kid with glasses who introduced the student behind him as “m’wife”. Oddly enough, none of the students in the class seemed to care or take much notice, as if it was a normal thing to call another male student your wife for your fun fact.   
The first day of school had been fairly normal, and for the most part, Lovino liked his students. He even had his younger brother in one of his classes, which would no doubt be a headache later on in the year when Feliciano called him asking for help on physics homework he didn't understand. The only student he didn't like so far was the noisy kid named Alfred in the back, who had been nothing short of annoying the entire class period he was there.   
Overall, the day had gone pretty well, and Lovino gave himself a mental pat on the back for making it through his first day as a teacher. He was in a fairly good mood as he set his things down in the staff meeting room.   
Or, at least, he was in a good mood until Antonio Fernandez Carriedo walked into the room. He met Lovino’s eyes, and lit up in a bright smile, giving a short wave before sitting down. He had gone to college with that attractive bastard, and had had the biggest crush on him all sophomore year. Lovino let out a little snort, surprised the bastard had managed to pass enough classes to actually start teaching.   
All through the staff meeting Lovino struggled to keep his eyes off of Antonio, but always found his attention drawn back to that tousled brown hair, and those vivid green eyes. Suddenly, Antonio turned and their eyes met. Lovino quickly looked down in embarrassment, blushing, and furiously scribbled on his notepad. When the meeting ended, he quickly got up and left, successfully avoiding having to talk to Antonio.   
~  
It was the second weekly staff meeting of the year, and Principal Héderváry could already sense the tension between the Spanish and physics teacher. Neither of them had their attention on the meeting, instead each was sneaking longing glances at the other. When the meeting ended, Elizabeta held Mr. Bonnefoy back in search of some answers. If anyone knew what was going on there, it would be Francis. He was the school’s self-declared ‘Love Expert’, and was also one of the Spanish teachers best friends.   
“So Francis,” She hummed, “What’s going on between Antonio and the new physics teacher?”   
“Oh, that? Toni has the biggest crush on Mr. Vargas, and it appears Mr. Vargas feels the same way,” Francis sighed. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like Lovino will initiate anything, and Antonio’s too much of a dumbass to do anything more than leave anonymous notes, so they may need some pushing to get together,”   
A grin crept across Elizabeta’s face. She loved to play matchmaker, especially with her staff. “Oh, how lovely!” She clapped her hands together and smiled. “Mayhaps I could be of assistance in setting them up?”   
Francis smiled mischievously in return. “Of course, mon ami! I’ll create another school gossip group chat, this one without Antonio,” Francis pulled out his phone and began furiously typing. “There!” Suddenly, Elizabeta’s phone chimed. 

Francis: Alright, this is the new gossip group chat :) Neither Antonio nor Mr. Vargas are in it  
Eliza: Yay :>  
Arthur: Francis, why the bloody hell am I in this group chat?  
Gilbert: Awesome, r we finaly gonna force them 2gether?   
Eliza: Yep~ First, Francis said Antonio’s been sending anonymous notes?  
Francis: The notes are also in spanish  
Eliza: So our first step is getting Vargas to realize Toni’s the one sending the notes  
Francis: That should be easy enough  
Francis: I’ll drop by Mr. Vargas’s classroom next monday to get him to realize that ;)  
Arthur: Is this chat specifically for messing with Mr. Fernandez Carriedo and Mr. Vargas?  
Arthur: I told you all to stop meddling in other people's lives  
~  
Lovino sighed and shoved the paper into his pocket. It was another one of the numerous anonymous love notes he had received. It seemed like the person sending the notes wasn’t going to stop anytime soon. He still hadn’t figured out who the hell would even do this, but he assumed it was probably a student, or teacher like Mr. Bonnefoy or Mr. Beilschmidt, playing a prank on him. He walked into his classroom and threw himself into the desk chair.   
All his life, his younger brother had been the better brother. He was smarter, cuter, better at painting, and of course he had a better temper than Lovino. His entire life, Lovino watched everyone favor Feliciano, including their grandfather. He had never been more than an afterthought, the ill tempered shadow of his younger brother. As a matter of fact, the only time anyone had ever feigned interest in him, it had been a dare. Why did he have any reason to think the person sending him love notes now actually meant it?   
Lovino slumped his head on his desk and exhaled sharply. However, he jolted up in surprise when he heard the door to his classroom creak open. Lovino let out a sigh when he saw it was only one of his students coming in and setting their stuff down. He really didn’t want to deal with any adults right now.   
The classroom was pretty calm for about five minutes as students set their things down and got ready for class, until about a minute after Ivan Braginsky entered the room. “You forgot this in the locker room, Braginsky!” Someone shouted from outside. Through the front door, a black duffel bag flew into the room, and hit Ivan square in the back of the head with a dull thud.   
Ivan turned around slowly to see Alfred walk into the room, a shit-eating grin plastered across his face. “Oops,” Alfred smiled wider and slid in to his seat. Ivan glared at Alfred, and if looks could kill, everyone within a five yard radius of Alfred would be dead. Ivan opened his mouth, presumably to start a fight that would most definitely end with broken bones, but Lovino quickly cut him off.   
“No. Not today. I am not putting up with your bullshit today,” He hissed, and turned to glare at Alfred. “Mr. Jones, I can, and will, have your ability to play football revoked if you continue to do this in my class,” Lovino huffed, and turned to Ivan. “The same goes for you, Mr. Braginsky,”   
Ivan furrowed his brow, clearly unhappy, before pulling on a creepy fake smile. “I am sorry, Mr. Vargas. It will not happen again, da?” At the last word he glared at Alfred with a gaze that could freeze water. Lovino sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. It was too early for this. But by the way things were looking, the rest of the day would be just as stressful as the beginning.   
~  
The long day was finally over, and Lovino let out a breath of relief when the last student left his classroom. This one German kid had the same class as Feliciano, and Feli was fawning over the brute all. Goddamn. Class. There was no doubt in his mind Ludwig was taking advantage of his baby brother, so Lovino took it upon himself to make sure this kid’s life was as difficult as possible. Unfortunately, in addition to being incredibly muscular, the little bastard was also actually really smart, and did all the extra problems with ease. He didn’t even flinch when Lovino called on him multiple times throughout the class.   
Lovino sighed, and shook his head. He didn’t want to waste time thinking about that, and potentially give himself an even bigger headache. Right now, all he wanted to do was go home and eat some pasta, maybe watch a soap opera or two. He was organizing the worksheets for tomorrow when he heard a small knock on his door.   
He turned to see the culinary teacher enter the room, looking a bit awkward. “Hola, Señor Vargas,” The words were clumsy, and fell out of his mouth with a lack of the usual elegance put behind them.   
“Qué quieres, Bonnefoy? Ya estaba un dia muy largo, y estoy cansado,” He spat out, too tired to translate them into English. Besides, Francis had greeted him in Spanish, so he should be prepared to respond in Spanish.   
Yet the other man just stood there, looking like a frog out of water. “Ah, sí?” He said after a few moments, before sighing. “What did you say? I don’t speak Spanish. Actually, no one around here speaks Spanish except you and Antonio.” Lovino opened his mouth to respond, but was quickly cut off by Francis. “Why did I even come in here again? Oh well, it seems I forgot. I’ll come back later if I remember! À demain, Lovino!”   
And with that, the culinary teacher dashed out of his room, leaving Lovino dumbfounded and more than a little irritated. Why had that French bastard greeted him in Spanish if he couldn’t actually speak the language? Seriously, especially if he knew that Lovino and Antonio were the only ones in the school who spoke Spanish and- Oh. He and Antonio were the only ones who spoke Spanish. Which means that-   
“Fuck! It’s that bastard again!” He ground his teeth. Honestly, he wasn’t being smooth at all, especially after what happened in college. Lovino sighed. It had to be a joke. No one ever did things like this to him with good intentions. And besides, even if it wasn’t a joke, Lovino would never return that bastard’s affections. Right?  
~  
Everyone could tell something was off about Mr. Fernandez Carriedo the second he walked into the room. He didn’t even start the class with exuberant spanish greetings as he normally did, instead just passing out a packet before sitting as his desk and gazing at the wall, a dopey smile plastered on his face.   
Everyone had finished the packet on the preterite tense fairly quickly, and all the students had been done for at least 20 minutes. Mr. Fernandez Carriedo was still staring intently at the wall, lost inside his own head. Finally bored with tossing crumpled paper balls at the back of Ivan’s head, Alfred huffed loudly and turned to the teacher.   
“Yo, are we going to do anything today or…?” Upon getting no response from the man, Alfred got up, his chair making a loud screech as it scraped across the floor. “Y’all good there, dude?” He walked in front of the teachers desk, and waved his hand up and down in front of the others face.   
At this, Mr. Fernandez Carriedo snapped to attention, shocked out of his daydream. “Oh! Hola, Alfred,” He hummed, tapping his fingers on the desk. “Did you need anything?”   
“Uh, yeah. We’ve all been done with our packets for like 20 minutes,” Alfred laughed. “So are we going to do anything else today, or…”   
“Oh! Lo siento, I must’ve lost track of the time,” He looked to the clock on the wall, and sighed upon realizing there was only five minutes left of class. “You all can just chat for the last five minutes of class,” He called out to the students, before scribbling something down on a piece of notebook paper.  
~  
The next day in Spanish class, Mr. Fernandez Carriedo was oddly energetic in class, talking for a good 10 minutes about his pet turtles and tomato garden. This was nothing new, but it segwayed into him talking about love for 20 minutes. Clearly, this man had fallen head over heels for someone.   
As Mr. Fernandez Carriedo rambled on and on about the intricacies of winning someone over, and “adorable hazel eyes!” Alfred turned to his brother, and upon meeting Matthew’s eyes, he tossed a crumpled paper ball towards the other boy. Upon uncrumpling the sticky note, he found a few words scribbled on it in green crayon.   
Whos Carriedo talkin about??? Matthew huffed and wrote back in tiny, neat print. Pay attention, Alfred. You can talk to me after class. He watched as Alfred read the note, then childishly stuck his tongue out at Matthew.   
Once class had ended, Alfred practically tackled Matthew. “Dude, we so totally have to find out who Carriedo has the hots for!” Matthew sighed and brushed his younger brother off.   
“And why are you so concerned with Mr. Fernandez Carriedo’s personal life?” Matthew walked to his locker, Alfred following behind.   
“Dude, the only thing he used to talk about like that was his turtles. This has to be something big, right?” Matthew did have to admit that this mystery crush was greatly affecting Mr. Fernandez Carriedo, specifically in his ability to keep the class on track. But still, Matthew didn’t want meddle in his teacher’s personal life. Plus, he was far too busy for that. He was taking a bunch of AP classes, and already had more than enough to do, including the God-awful, twice a month, history essays Mr. Wang made them do.   
“Why don’t you ask Kiku to help you?” Alfred’s face immediately lit up. “That’s a great idea! Thanks, bro! Imma go see if I can find him now!” Matthew winced as Alfred patted his back a little too hard, before racing off to find his best friend. He smirked to himself. Alfred really wasn’t that hard to get rid of, you just had to know how to get rid of him. He shut his locker and began to head to English class.   
~  
After 4th period, Alfred grabbed lunch(a hamburger with an extra pudding cup to throw in case Braginsky wanted to start shit with him today), and ran to the cafeteria, searching the area for his best friend. Upon seeing the soft-spoken boy, he yelled, “Keeks!” to catch the boy’s attention, and waved his hand violently, before running to go sit with Kiku.   
He slammed his lunch tray on the table, before quickly hugging Kiku. “Man, it’s been forever since I’ve been able to eat lunch with you! God, I wish the new coach would have less lunch meetings. It sucks not being able to chill with you at lunch,” He took a large bite of his hamburger, and Kiku nodded in agreement. “Anyways, remember how on Saturday I was talking about how my Spanish teacher has been extra ditzy this year? Well apparently he’s got a crush on someone, and we totes have to figure out who it is!”   
Alfred spoke over the hamburger in his mouth, and quickly swallowed. “I’m thinking it’s one of the other teachers, so I was hoping you could help me figure out who it is? Mattie’s being a buzzkill and won’t help me,”  
Kiku looked into his vivid blue eyes, and stuttered a moment before answering. “I-I will try, Alfred,” he averted his eyes and took a small bite of his sandwich.   
“Awesome! You’re the best, bro!” Alfred flashed a wide grin before taking another large bite of his burger. After a moment of comfortable silence, Kiku changed the subject.   
“Today Ludwig and Feliciano are going to come eat with us,”   
“Sweet! These are the kids in your physics class?” Kiku nodded. He had started to eat lunch at the library with Ludwig and Feli when Alfred started having more frequent lunch meeting for his clubs and football.   
~  
Ludwig had just closed his locker when Feliciano ran up, and tackled him in a hug from behind. “Ve~ Luddy!” Ludwig simply grunted in response, as his brain had stopped working when he felt the smaller boy’s arms wrap around his chest. When he finally started thinking again, he began to walk towards the cafeteria, Feliciano following and chattering endlessly. “Ve, why are we going this way? Don’t we normally have lunch in the library with Kiku?” Feliciano stopped his chatter when he realized they were walking a different direction than they normally did.  
“We’re going to eat lunch in the cafeteria with Kiku and his friend, Alfred, remember?” They had promised the quiet boy they would eat lunch with him and his friend today.   
“Ah, that reminds me! I have to go find out who Lovi’s crush is, ve, he won’t tell me who it is, ve, but I know he has one!” Feli stopped for air, before quickly continuing. “He’s been acting weird and extra blushy lately!” Ludwig stopped for a moment. Mr. Vargas had a crush? He hadn’t seemed very lovesick, but what did Ludwig know? He was possibly the most emotionally constipated person in school. “Ve, anyways, I should probably go now!” Feli planted a kiss on Ludwig’s cheek, before running off the other direction with a short wave.   
Ludwig stood still for a moment, certain his heart stopped beating when Feliciano kissed him on the cheek. He really should figure out what Feli means when he does all these things, but for now, he has places to be. He picked up his pace and hurried to the cafeteria to meet Kiku and Alfred.   
Apparently they were best friends, and Ludwig had never heard Kiku say anything bad about the boy. Despite never really interacting with Alfred, he had a certain reputation that Ludwig didn’t quite trust. Apparently, last year, he had gotten in a fight with another student over the time football practice should be held. However, Kiku seemed to like the boy, so he couldn’t be that bad.   
When he entered the cafeteria, Kiku waved him over to their table. Ludwigs sat down and was immediately subjected to Alfred’s ever going stream of chatter. They had been talking for a few moments when the conversation drifted to sports, specifically football.   
“Has anyone ever told you you’d be good at football?” Alfred asked, looking at Ludwig’s muscular form. Ludwig simply shook his head, overwhelmed by Alfred’s high energy personality. “Well you’d be awesome at it, dude! You should join the team! You’d totally be a better linebacker than Braginsky,” He said, his voice raising towards the end, ensuring Ivan, who was just passing by their table, heard him.   
Ivan merely paused for a moment, before elbowing Alfred in the shoulder, hard, as he walked by their table. Alfred snorted and muttered something under his breath, but quickly turned his attention to Kiku. “So dude, are we still on for video games this Friday?” Kiku merely nodded, still chewing his sandwich. Alfred’s face lit up, and a grin spread across his face.   
“Sweet! I don’t know what I would do without you, bro!” He slung his arm around Kiku’s shoulder. “Ya know, I tried to teach Mattie how to play, but he’s awful at using anything other than a Wii remote!” Alfred continued to ramble on, seemingly oblivious to the soft blush dusting Kiku’s face.   
Suddenly, Ludwig’s phone buzzed with a message from Feli. He refrained from slamming his head into the table when he read the message. Feliciano had somehow managed to get himself stuck inside a locker. He quickly got up with a gruff goodbye, and went to go find, and save, the ditzy Italian.   
~  
Antonio hummed as he walked to the culinary room, in a rather good mood today. His Spanish II students had a test on the preterite tense, and he was pleasantly surprised when the class average was 85%. Usually the Spanish I and II class averages were significantly lower due to the amount of students who only took the class to get the foreign language credits to graduate.   
When he reached Mr. Bonnefoy’s classroom, Francis was still talking to his favorite student, Marcus? Manny? Mateo? He couldn’t quite recall the kid’s name, though his face was vaguely familiar. He sort of looked like Alfred from his 2nd period. “Oh! And could you please give this to Mr. Kirkland on your way to Environmental Club?” The kid nodded and took the small box. “Merci beaucoup, Matthieu!” Francis called out as the blonde boy walked out the door. Antonio walked over to the table Francis was sitting at, and set his lunch down.   
“Sending something to Mr. Kirkland?” He asked, grinning, a teasing lilt to his voice. Francis huffed.  
“Well, I just found out he doesn’t bring a lunch to school, and I wouldn’t trust anything he does make and bring to school,”   
“And you’re not already an old married couple?” Gilbert, who had just walked in, smirked from the other side of the room before coming to the table. After harassing Francis about his love life for a few minutes, the topic switched to harassing Antonio about his love life. After some lewd comments from and teasing onhonhons, Francis made a legitimate suggestion. “Well Toni, if you’re already sending him letters, why not send him gifts too? I heard he likes tomatoes, I’m sure he would appreciate the fresh tomatoes you grow,”   
Antonio’s face lit up. “That’s a great idea, Francis! I’ll leave him an anonymous basket tomorrow!” He hummed, and went back to mindlessly stabbing at his lunch with the fork, mind already occupied with thoughts of the cute physics teacher. Francis smirked, fully aware that the gifts and notes weren’t really anonymous, as no one else would send that grumpy man love letters and gifts.   
He took out his phone, and began to message the group chat. Throughout the past weeks, they had been keeping tabs on Antonio and Lovino, and subtly trying to get them together. Elizabeta always seated them next to each other at staff meetings, and in an almost stalker-ish fashion, she often knew of their whereabouts and proximity to each other.  
Francis: So what’s everyone got on our Toni and Mr. Vargas?  
Arthur: Please get rid of my number, Francis  
Eliza: Ooh! They interacted together in the copier room yesterday!  
Eliza: Attached: 1 image  
Arthur: Elizabeta, that’s technically stalking, and is illegal.  
Arthur: Guys, please leave Mr. Vargas and Mr. Fernandez Carriedo alone.  
Eliza: Stop being such a buzzkill, Arthur~  
Eliza: Anyways~  
Francis: Okay, so we all know Toni can’t do anything romantic without assistance  
Eliza: yes~?  
Francis: So I told him to leave Lovino an “anonymous” gift  
Francis: Which won’t be anonymous as he already knows Toni’s his secret admirer  
Eliza: of course,  
Francis: So hopefully this will be the push they need to get together!  
Gilbert: dnot txt while eating, wre u raised by pigs FRanny?!?!?   
Francis: Gilbert, you literally have half of your mashed potatoes in your hair. I can see them.  
Gilbert: and?? :p  
~  
As soon as the last student left the room, Lovino shut and locked his classroom door, not really feeling like interacting with anyone, and just having an hour of silence. He sat at his desk, and sighed, taking a tupperware of pasta out of his lunchbox. As he chewed, he began to grade the assignments his AP Physics class handed in. After about the fifth worksheet, his thoughts began to drift to the note he received in his box earlier today.  
Heat rose to his face as he remembered the lines that had been scrawled on with pen. También, no puedo dejar de admirarte. Eres solo tan lindo! What did they mean, “You are just too cute”? Lovino Vargas wasn’t cute. There were a million and a half words to describe Lovino Vargas, and cute just wasn’t one of them. He was annoying and angry and foul tempered. Everyone knew that.   
Huffing, he buried his face in his hands. Why would Antonio joke around like this? It wasn’t like it affected him, or anything stupid like that, but still. Lovino just wished these thoughts about Antonio and his stupid soft, chocolate brown, hair weren’t so distracting. It had been twenty minutes, and he had only gotten through six worksheets. At this rate he would never get anything done.  
~  
“Is there anyone already done with the worksheet who wants to deliver something for me?” Antonio called out to his class, tapping his pen against the desk.  
“I can do it, Mr. Fernandez Carriedo,” Matthew answered first, but his words were quickly washed out by a hand shooting up from the back of the room, accompanied by a loud voice.   
“I got you, Carriedo! What do ya need me to do?” Matthew sighed as Mr. Fernandez Carriedo turned his attention to Alfred, and he was ignored once again.   
“Gracias, Alfred!” He held out a small, red box tied with a yellow ribbon. “Deliver this to room M221, por favor!” Alfred took the box, and stepped away to leave, before Antonio stopped him. “Ah! Also, Alfred, don’t tell anyone who sent the box, sí?” Alfred shot him a hurried nod and left the room quickly, glad to have an excuse to leave class and not do that boring-ass worksheet.   
He hadn’t taken three steps down the hall when he looked in the box. He probably shouldn’t, but no one else had to know, right? Inside, there was a single tomato with a note on top that read; No te olvides comer! Next to a heart, all of which had been written in Mr. Fernandez Carriedo’s curly script. Alfred broke out into a wide grin. Jackpot. Whoever he delivered this to was probably the object of his Spanish teacher’s constant pining. He quickly whipped out his phone, and shot a text to Kiku.  
Alfred: Dude i think i found carriedos crush!!! Tell u more l8r 2nite bro!!! :P  
He put his phone away before he could see Kiku’s response, eager to find out who had caused Mr. Fernandez Carriedo to be so flustered these past few weeks. When he reached M221, he stopped for a second, confused. It couldn’t be. This was Mr. Vargas’s classroom. There was no way Carriedo fell for that ill-tempered asshole, right?   
He pushed open the door, and sure enough, Mr. Vargas was going over vectors in front of the class. Alfred cleared his throat, and Mr. Vargas turned to glare at him. “What do you want?”   
“Yo, I was told to give this to you?” He held out the red box, and noticed the way a blush began to spread across his face.   
“I- Just set it there, Jones,” He pointed at the front table. Alfred set down the box and began to leave, hearing Vargas mutter something like, “Fucking idiota,” under his breath.   
Once he left the classroom, Alfred sighed. So Vargas really was the one Mr. Fernandez Carriedo was entranced with. Alfred didn’t really see how, as Mr. Vargas had the personality of a stepped-on lemon. Oh well. Alfred couldn’t really choose who his teachers fell for. The only thing to do now was watch this whole thing play out, and maybe give them a few pushes to get together.  
~  
When football practice ended, Alfred practically raced out of the locker room, skidding around corners and almost running into other students on his way to the front of the school where he would meet Kiku. After running his eyes across the people out front and not spotting Kiku, he whipped out his phone. Usually Kiku was out of Chess Club before Alfred got out of football practice, so it was odd for him to be the first one out.   
Though, Braginsky left school early today, so he wasn’t at practice. Practice probably went far quicker and easier without Alfred and Ivan arguing over every little thing, but it felt odd without him. When Kiku finally left the building Alfred jammed his phone in his pocket and gave an exuberant wave, before running up to Kiku.   
“Keeks!” He patted the other’s shoulder. “You ready to go?” Kiku nodded and began to follow Alfred to his car. Every Friday night, they played video games together as Matthew was usually out of the house, hanging out with his friends. The two had been best friends since kindergarten, when Kiku’s family moved into Alfred’s neighborhood, often bonding over video games and scary movies.   
When the two reached Alfred’s house, they immediately flopped down on the sofa, armed with bags of chips and and caffeinated drinks, ready to play into the late hours of the night. About halfway through level 12 of Super Mario Brothers, Alfred turned to Kiku, mouthful of chips.   
“Oh! Dude, I forgot!” He quickly swallowed as not to talk with a full mouth. “I’m pretty sure I figured out who’s got Carriedo’s eye!” Kiku hummed a noise of agreement, always happy to listen to his best friend, even if the ramblings were objectively unimportant. “Anyways, he asked me to deliver this thing that was totally a love note with a gift, I mean, it even had a heart and everything! And so I go to the room he told me, and guess who’s room it was?” Alfred paused for half a second before continuing.   
“It was Mr. Vargas’s room! Can you believe Mr. Fernandez Carriedo likes him? He’s the human equivalent of straight black coffee mixed with lemon juice,” Kiku nodded.   
“That sounds about right. Feliciano is Mr. Vargas’s younger brother, and he’s convinced his older brother has a crush on Mr. Fernandez Carriedo, but just hasn’t realized it yet,” He slowly munched on a chip. “Feli’s been trying to set them up these past two weeks, actually,”   
Alfred grinned and leaned in a bit closer to Kiku. “Ya know, someone should tell Mr. Vargas that Carriedo’s the one sending the notes and gifts, if it’s not obvious already,” Alfred grinned. “Yo, that’s actually a really good idea! I should totally sweep in and save the day by making Mr. Vargas realize his feelings!”   
He flicked his eyes back to the television screen and quickly moved his character out of danger. “I’ll do it in a subtle way too, so Vargas won’t suspect a thing!” Alfred beamed, mulling the idea over in his head for a moment, before he was snapped out of his trance by the Game Over noise coming from the television. “Ack! Damnit, I was so close to the boss, too!” He pouted, and redirected his attention to the game before him.  
~  
It was finally Friday, and Lovino was more than ready to be done with the week. As soon as he possibly could, Lovino gathered up his things and began to leave the school. The week had dragged on for far too long, and he had been through one too many staff meetings for his comfort. To top it all off, he had to deal with that dumbass Spanish teacher and-   
“Lovi! Wait up for a minute, por favor!” Speak of the devil. Lovino sighed and turned to face the person behind him.   
“What do you want, bastard?” Antonio ran up to meet him, and stopped for a moment to catch his breath. He finally looked up, the most adorable smile plastered across his face.   
“Are you leaving now?” Lovino nodded, and Antonio continued almost immediately. “Ah, so am I! Mind if I walk out with you?” When Lovino offered nothing but a shrug and a frown, Antonio took it as a yes, and smiled brighter.   
As they walked together out to the parking lot, the conversation was mostly one sided, with Antonio chatting about his turtles and other trivial things. Lovino rarely answered or contributed to the conversation, but when he did, that idiot’s face lit up like a christmas tree. When they reached the parking lot, Antonio split off to go to his car with an exuberant wave and a “See you tomorrow Lovi!”   
When Lovino got into his car, he grasped the steering wheel with more force than necessary, and let out a strangled scream. Why was that bastard always so nice, and God, he was always happy too. As he drove home, he attempted to keep his thoughts off of Antonio, but to no avail.   
As a matter of fact, Lovino had been unable to keep his thoughts from straying to those of bright green eyes and the gentle scent of spanish spices even when he was in the comfort of his own home. So here he was, half-drunk, shoveling pasta into his mouth, and lamenting over his feelings for Antonio. So what if he had fallen for a complete and total idiot? The man was still cute, damnit. Unfortunately, it wasn’t like the bastard would ever return his feelings. The stupid notes he sent were probably just him and his stupid friends idea of a joke, just like college. Lovino huffed and slumped down onto the table, hating the feeling of helplessness flooding through him.  
~  
On Monday, once again, Lovino was left a love note from Antonio in his box. He stuffed it into his pocket, deciding he would read it later. He went to his classroom and decided to get a head start on grading the latest quizzes. He had only gotten halfway through the first one when his classroom door opened.   
Alfred stumbled in, out of breath, and tossed his backpack onto his desk. Confused, Lovino looked at his watch. There were still ten minutes until the bell rang. “Alfred?” Lovino asked. Usually he was one of the last students into the classroom, oftentimes arriving five minutes late.   
The blonde boy looked up, and popped his knuckles. “Okay, so first off, you know the Spanish teacher, Mr. Fernandez Carriedo?” Lovino nodded, and Alfred continued. “Well, he totally has a mega-crush on you. Y’all should totally get together or something,” At this, a heavy blush spread across Lovino’s face and he crossed his arms.   
“Alfred, if you only came here to talk about rumors, I suggest you leave. It is incredibly disrespectful to-”   
Alfred rolled his eyes. “Chill dude, it was only a suggestion. Plus, I also came here to talk about last week’s homework,” He grabbed the paper off of his desk, and began to talk with Lovino about the problems he didn’t understand. Lovino sighed and rubbed his temples. He was told that Alfred was a good kid, and maybe he was, but the kid was annoying as all hell. Oh well. At least he actually seemed to make an effort on the homework.   
~  
Antonio hummed happily as he scrawled romantic phrases on a sticky note. He had his entire planning period to decide what he wanted to say to Lovi next. Soon, he had a tiny yellow paper full of spanish adorations, and small hearts. Antonio sighed as began to write out his next note.   
Lovino was truly too good for him. Lovino was smart, and sweet, and absolutely adorable. Everything about him was uniquely endearing, from his small scowl to the small curl of hair that refused to stay flat. His eyes were the most gorgeous hazel colour, and he always smelled faintly of cinnamon candles and homemade pizza. Antonio’s pen raced across the paper, spanish adorations embedding themselves onto the paper in a loopy, curly script. Writing like this, in a poetic manner, had always come easily to Antonio.   
School had never come easily to him. In fact, while he was in college, he had always been jealous of Lovino’s ability to solve complex math equations and not bat an eye, while the same problems took him hours to complete. Despite not being good at most academic subjects, he had always had a talent for writing and languages. The words simply flew onto the paper, in a messy, poetic way. Once he had completed the note, he stared at it for a moment, before deciding it would go perfectly with a gift of homegrown tomatoes. Lovino had always liked tomatoes. He hummed gently, setting the note off to the side of his messy desk.   
Tomorrow he would bring in a small basket of tomatoes for Lovi, to go along with the note. Antonio smiled as he wrote a reminder to pick fresh tomatoes tonight. Hopefully Lovino would like the gift, small as it was.  
~  
Lovinos face flushed a bright red as he looked at the basket. "That stupid bastard!" He muttered, before setting it down on his desk. The basket was a small woven thing, filled with tomatoes. Tomatoes that were probably homegrown. They were also probably grown in Mr. Fernandez Carriedo's tomato garden that he spoke of so much. There was also a note attached, and most of the students would bet their right arm that note was in Spanish.   
Things continued on like this for a few weeks, Lovino receiving love notes in his box every Monday, and random gifts and sticky notes with hearts throughout the week. At this point all the students knew of Mr. Fernandez Carriedo’s crush on Mr. Vargas. A few students actively tried to help get them to get together, and some didn’t care whatsoever, but most of the two teachers students simply watched on, soaking in the drama.   
~  
It had been a few days since Alfred had so boldly suggested he and Antonio get together, and as Lovino finished planner the next day’s lesson, the idea became more and more prominent in his head. Maybe there was something there. Maybe Antonio really did care for Lovino the way he claimed in those notes. Maybe, just maybe, someone cared for him just as much as he cared for them. As he mulled the thoughts over in his head, he suddenly cursed himself for even entertaining an idea like this. If he was wrong, and Antonio was just playing a prank on him, he would be devastated. Devastated and embarrassed. Lovino wrinkled his nose at the thought of being caught as the butt of one of Antonio’s dumb jokes.   
But then again, Feliciano had also not so subtly tried to push him to admit his feelings for Antonio. Both of them had suggested that Antonio legitimately meant what he said in every gift and note Lovino received. So maybe he should confess? Lovino groaned and slumped down onto his desk. Antonio was probably just playing a dumb prank. But what if he really did mean what he said in the notes? Lovino glanced to the small basket of tomatoes that was still on his desk. If it was a joke, would Antonio put so much effort into it? Lovino sighed. Probably not.   
Antonio wasn’t smart enough to set up something so complex if he didn’t mean it. Lovino sat up and opened his desk drawer, and pulled out the numerous notes he had saved. He leafed through them, running his eyes over each word that had been scrawled on in loopy print. As he read through them, he came to the decision he had to confess to Antonio. The letters looked like Toni had poured his heart and soul into them.   
As Lovino gently set the notes back into the desk drawer, he made his resolve to tell Antonio how he felt about him. He leaned back in his chair, running his fingers through his hair. Tomorrow afternoon. Tomorrow afternoon, he would tell Toni how he felt. He could only hope it all wasn’t just one giant joke on him.  
~  
His heart beat heavily against his chest as he walked down the hallway. Once he reached the dreaded room, classroom E-804, Lovino pressed himself against the wall and tried to calm the nervous thrill running through his veins, clutching the small bouquet of flowers closer to his chest. He was going to do it. He would finally confront Antonio about the notes, and ask the idiot on a date.   
He chewed his lower lip nervously for a moment before working up the courage to enter the classroom. The door was slightly open, and just as Lovino was about to burst in with his flowers and confession, he heard Antonio’s musical laugh from behind the door.   
“Ah, I looove you!” Antonio chimed, stretching out the ‘o’ sound. “Sending you all my love and affection!” There was an exuberant kissing noise and another one of Antonio’s small laughs. “I can’t wait to get home and see you! Ooh, maybe we can make paella for dinner!”   
Lovino’s heart sank as he absorbed the words coming from the room. ‘I love you’? He had to be talking to his lover. Who else would you talk to in such a manner? This must have meant every note he sent Lovino, every gift, it was all just a cruel joke. Of course it was just a joke. Wasn’t it always? It was just some sick prank to raise Lovino’s hopes, only to dash them as soon as he actually began to think someone cared for him. How stupid of him to believe anyone would legitamately care for him as more than a source of entertainment.   
As tears welled up in Lovino’s eyes, he slowly backed away from the door, Antonio’s words no longer discernible over the buzzing in his ears. Quickly wiping at his eyes, Lovino turned and ran out of the E building, dropping the flowers in one of the garbage cans on his way out.   
“Oh, and also, have I told you about Lovino? ¡Ah, que lindo! I’ll have to tell you more about him when I get home!” Antonio grinned, and from the computer there was a loud sigh.   
“You’re such a fucking nerd. Are you done yet?”   
“Hey! Don’t be so profane around them! They’ll pick up your dirty mouth!” Antonio frowned, though Henrique couldn’t see him.   
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry,” There was an even louder sigh from the video call. “They’re just turtles though,” Henrique muttered under his breath.   
“Okay, well, I can’t talk to you much more, but I’ll see you when I get home, mis cariños!” Antonio gave a rather exuberant wave to the tank full of turtles on the screen, before the camera switched back to his brother’s face.   
“I don’t understand why you insist I help you video chat those things everytime I’m near your house. You literally go home to them every night,” Henrique sighed, a frown plastered across his face. “Well, as much as I would love to listen to you ramble on to the turtles, I have to go. Talk to you later, Toni,”   
Antonio gave a small wave goodbye to his brother as the camera blacked out. Leaning back in his chair, he sighed contentedly. He couldn’t wait to go home to see his turtles. Other than maybe Lovino, they were the light of his life. Now what had he been doing before Henrique called? His eyes glazed out for a moment, trying to remember, before they landed on the stack of ungraded Spansh I essays.   
Antonio nearly fell out of the chair when he remembered grades were due on Friday. He had a lot of work to do if he wanted the essay grade to go on the next progress reports like he promised. Refocused on his task, Antonio hummed and began to read through the poorly written papers, rather content with how his day was going, none the wiser to Lovino’s eavesdropping.  
~  
The next morning, Antonio arrived to work in his usual good mood. He hummed softly, thinking to himself and planning out the day in his head. His Spanish II students were ahead of the planned schedule, so maybe he would just have them play La Lotería. As he was walking down to his classroom, he noticed a familiar brown curl ahead of him. Antonio’s smile brightened and he picked up his pace to a jog, trotting up to the figure ahead.   
“Lovi! Hi!” He caught up to the man, and gave a small wave and a bright grin. However, much to his surprise, Lovino didn’t huff and look away, or grumble something under his breath as he usually did. Instead, he stopped walking and looked up to Antonio with an icy scowl that could freeze over oceans. Lovino generally appeared to be grumpy, but this was different.   
Antonio took a step back and his smile dimmed. “Lovi? Is everything okay?” Lovino’s scowl dug even deeper into his face.   
“Of course, everything’s just great!” He hissed, sarcasm and venom lacing his voice.   
“Are you sure? It doesn’t sound like-” He started, but was sharply cut off by Lovino.   
“Just leave me the fuck alone. Go bother someone else,” Confusion filled Antonio’s features. Lovino had shown this much disdain for him before.   
Before he could say anything else, Lovino noticed and cut in. “You know exactly what you did, bastard. If you bother me again, I will call the head of District HR,” Lovino spat, and promptly turned his heel and began to walk away.   
Antonio’s face paled at the last threat. He wouldn’t really do that, would he? But then again, Lovino looked angrier than Antonio had ever seen. Maybe Antonio had misread Lovino and he truly hated him as much as he said.   
Antonio’s shoulders slumped and what was left of his smile slipped off his face. He would have to talk to his best friends about this, but maybe later. Right now he didn’t really feel like interacting with anyone. He began to make his way to his classroom, his happy mood from earlier completely eradicated.   
~  
Everyone could tell Mr. Vargas was in an extra bad mood the second they walked into the room. Even Alfred picked up on the rather angry aura emitting from the man, and sat down quietly in his seat without disrupting or breaking something for once. When class officially started, Mr. Vargas wasted no time passing out thick packets to each of the students.   
“These are due at the beginning of next class,” His tone was icy and harsh. “You have all of class to work on them, and if you don’t finish, you have the weekend too. No excuses if you don’t finish this,” For a few moments after receiving the packet, everyone just stared at it, in shock.   
Suddenly, a loud voice rang out from the back of the classroom. “Dude, what the actual McFuck is this?” Alfred cried out, not one minute into the assignment.   
“Language!” Mr. Vargas hissed, venom laced in every word. “Just shut up and do the packet, or it’ll be a referral to the office, Jones. And remember, one more referral for you means removal from the football team,” Alfred slumped back into his seat, muttering profanities as his eyes scanned the first page. At this point, just about every student was looking around, confused.   
Even Ivan, possibly the best physics student in the school, was furrowing his brow as he tried to make sense of the problem. Lovino leaned back in his desk chair and smiled bitterly. If he had to suffer, so did they. Suddenly Ivan raised his hand. “Mr. Vargas, I hate to agree with Alfred, but he does have a point.” Ivan furrowed his brow even deeper at the problems on the page. “I do not believe we have learned this yet, sir,”   
“You have a textbook. Take it out and use it, then,” Lovino’s tone left no room for argument, and he sat back, watching the students struggle through each problem.   
When class ended Alfred huffed and got up, calling Ivan’s name. The other male stopped and turned to look at Alfred, confusion clear in his face. Alfred sighed. Had he really stooped so low as to need to ask Ivan for help? Yes, yes he had. There was no way in hell he was understanding any of the mumbo jumbo in the packet without help, and Braginsky was the best in the class.   
“Yo, dude, did you understand anything in that packet?” he said, following Ivan out of class. Ivan looked shocked for a moment that Alfred would talk to him with intent other than to insult him.   
“Um, no, unfortunately I did not,” Alfred let out a loud groan and ran his hand through his hair. “I am sorry, Alfred, but it appears for once I am as lost as you,” Alfred pointedly chose to ignore the last comment and sighed again.   
“God, I am so screwed. Who pissed in his cheerios this morning?” Ivan just shrugged as Alfred exhaled harshly. “Oh well. See you later, Braginsky,” He gave a small wave and broke off to unlock his locker, clearly still in distress over the physics assignment.   
~  
After a few days of the hellscape that physics had become, Alfred noticed something was off with Mr. Fernandez Carriedo too. When Alfred walked into the spanish classroom, it was unusually quiet. Most of his classmates were sitting and awkwardly staring at Mr. Fernandez Carriedo, who was lethargically scribbling words onto a yellow sticky note.   
After sitting down, he turned to Matthew. What’s up with him? He mouthed, pointing to the teachers desk at the back of the classroom. Matthew just shrugged, turning to the front of the classroom as the bell rang, signaling the end of passing period. However, a full minute passed and Mr. Fernandez Carriedo was still marking up the small yellow piece of paper.   
“Mr. Fernandez Carriedo?” The short, blonde kid named Tino raised his hand to get the teacher’s attention. Almost as if snapped out of a trance, he raised his head, bags clear under his eyes.   
“¿Sí?”   
“What are we doing this period?”   
He tapped his pen against his chin for a moment, thinking. “Ah, well, a mi no me importa. Work on homework for other classes or something, unless you want a worksheet on informal commands?” At this most students shook their head, not wanting to do any more work than they had to.   
Mr. Fernandez Carriedo nodded. “Alright then. Looks like you have a free period for today. Just-” He sighed and slumped forward onto his desk, frowning. “Just try and be quiet, sí?” With that, he let out another small huff and most students began to take out homework from their other classes.   
Alfred almost cried in relief. Now he had a whole period to try and find someone who understood the God-awful physics packet. However, it was a bit odd that Mr. Fernandez Carriedo would give them a total free period. Usually that class was pretty relaxed and easy, but he always had the students do something, like reading a spanish short story, or he would play the guitar to a popular spanish folk song.   
Come to think of it, Mr. Fernandez Carriedo had been acting rather off. Before today, Alfred had never seen him frown. All of his past lessons had gotten increasingly more boring and he had gotten increasingly more lethargic as the week stretched on. Alfred paused for a moment.   
Maybe Mr. Vargas’s pissy attitude and Mr. Fernandez Carriedo’s sad, depressed attitude were connected. However, he didn’t have time to think about it too much, he had physics homework to do. Alfred could only hope that they snapped out of it soon, or his grades were really going to start suffering.   
~  
Antonio huffed for the fifth time in the past ten minutes, and slouched down, spreading his arms across the table. “What’s wrong, Toni?” Gilbert asked, scooting his lunch away as Antonio took up most of the tabletop space with his arms. Antonio looked up at Gilbert and Francis with an expression that could only be described as ‘kicked puppy’, sighed again, and buried his face in between his arms.   
Francis rolled his eyes and gently poked Antonio’s cheek. “Mon ami, you’ve been acting like this all week. What is the matter?”   
He looked up and pouted. “I think Lovi hates me,”   
“Antonio, Lovino hates everyone and everything. This is nothing new,” Gilbert piped in.   
“No, I mean he really hates me. He suddenly started avoiding me, and glaring at me, more than normal,” Antonio raised his head off the table. “A-and then I went up to ask him why, and he just said he didn’t even want to be in the same room as me, and to never talk to him again, or he would file a complaint to district HR,” Antonio looked up with legitimate tears welling up in his eyes, and Gilbert would have laughed had he not looked so serious.   
Francis furrowed his brow and set his fork down. “Odd. He’s usually more forgiving towards you than everyone else,” He chewed his lip, thinking back. What had gone wrong? Lovino threatening to file a complaint to HR was definitely not in the plan. And up until this point, they had actually been making some progress, so what happened? While Antonio continued to lament about Mr. Vargas, Francis began to text the gossip group chat.   
Francis: We may have run into some issues with Toni and Lovino  
Eliza: What happened? :<  
Gilbert: Lovno h8s toni   
Eliza: But he hates everyone???  
Francis: Apparently he’s started to avoid Toni, and even threatened him with District HR  
Eliza: District HR?  
Eliza: Those people are insufferable  
Francis: Precisely. So Toni must have really messed up this time  
Francis: I’ll go talk to Mr. Vargas as soon as possible to find out what Antonio did.  
Gilbert: do it soon, sad Toni s freakinf me out, its wierd   
~  
Despite Francis’s best efforts to go talk to Lovino as soon as possible, he wasn’t able to until two weeks later. His year four culinary competitions had come up, and the students needed as much preparation as possible. Of course, then grades were due, and there was one too many district meetings, and all in all, Francis had barely had a moment of rest for the past two weeks.   
However, finally he had a friday afternoon free to go figure out what Toni did wrong, and more importantly, try and fix whatever he messed up with Mr. Vargas. As soon as he had finished cleaning the kitchen after his last period, he left to go talk to Lovino. When Francis reached room M221, he knocked gently on the door before entering. “Mr. Vargas?” He stepped into the room, the door shutting behind him.   
Lovino was sitting at his desk, working intently on grading papers. He looked up to Francis, bags prominent under his eyes. When his eyes landed on Francis’s face, however, his eyes narrowed and frown deepened. “If what you want to talk about is not absolutely necessary and strictly professional, get out of my classroom,” He hissed, putting the cap on his pen.   
“W-what?” Francis asked, taken aback a little. He had known Lovino was rather angry and bitter, but he hadn’t expected the other man to be this unfriendly.   
“You heard me,”   
“Listen, I came here to talk to you about Anton-” Francis started, before being cut off by Lovino.   
“Get out. Get out of my classroom,” Lovino stood up suddenly, slamming the red pen down onto his desk. Before Francis could respond, he continued, anger painted across his face. “Listen, I don’t know what you’re trying to do here, but it wont work again. I want you to leave my class right now, and never come back, unless you absolutely have to for work. If you or your bastard continue to harass me, I will not hesitate to call the head of district HR,”   
At the mention of district HR, Francis’s face paled a bit and he backed up, now only a few inches away from the door. “Listen I just want to talk to you about-”   
“And I just want you to get the hell out of my classroom,” Lovino crossed his arms, his tone low and deadly.   
Picking up that there was no way Lovino was going to talk to him in a non-hostile manner, Francis muttered an, “Okay, okay,” and began to leave the room.   
“Oh, and everything I said to you is the same for Antonio and the mechanics teacher. I do not want to interact with any of you anymore,” Lovino sat down, looking to be significantly more bitter and angry than when Francis had stepped into the room.   
When Francis got back to his classroom, he slumped down into his desk and rested his cheek on his palm. That had definitely not gone as planned. It seemed Lovino was mad at him and Gilbert, in addition to Antonio, and Francis still had no idea why. He gently rubbed his temples and pulled out his cell phone.   
Francis: Elizabeta, I need your help.   
Eliza: Oh? What do you need?  
~  
After explaining everything that had happened, Francis set his phone down and began to pack up to go home. Elizabeta had said she would go talk to Lovino to figure out what was going on. Eliza had a talent for extracting information people were hesitant to give up, and plus, she was the principal, so Lovino couldn’t really not talk to her. Francis sighed as he shoved his phone in his bag. Antonio better thank him when all of this is over and they’re at least on good terms again.   
~  
It had been a couple of depressive, lonely nights for Lovino, and the sting of being the butt of a stupid joke had yet to go away. To make matters worse, Antonio’s bastard friend had to show up and rub salt in the wound. Lovino angrily tapped on his keyboard, writing up problems for the next AP Physics quiz. Since he had yelled at Antonio, he barely left his classroom, showing up later than usual and leaving earlier than usual to avoid crossing paths with the Spanish teacher.   
He began to dread having to go to the faculty lounge to make copies, as it meant interacting with more people. Luckily, after Lovino snapped at him, he had yet to run into that bastard. As he finished up typing the unreasonably difficult test, and was about to venture out to the copier room, there was a soft knock on his door. Lovino groaned under his breath and rolled his eyes, not really feeling like talking to anyone, especially if it happened to be Antonio or his friends.   
“Come in,” He called. The door opened, and Lovino breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing it was only the principal. Elizabeta walked into the room, a small smile on her face. “Good afternoon, Mrs. Héderváry,” He said politely.   
“Oh, please, you can call me Elizabeta,” She hummed in response. “So how have you been?” One thing Lovino did like about this school was the principal. She was rather sweet and friendly, and one of the few people he couldn’t seem to be mean to. She just felt too much like a mother. Although, he probably wouldn’t act too bitter towards her even if he hated her, as she was his boss and had the ability to make his workload a living hell.   
After a few minutes of pleasant chatter with Elizabeta, the conversation shifted in topic. “So what happened with you and Antonio? I noticed that you two aren’t talking as much. You used to be such good...friends,” Elizabeta looked to him, her eyes wide.   
“Oh, that,” Lovino wrinkled his nose at the mention of Antonio. “Nothing much really, he played a stupid prank and I’m not about to be the butt of another one of his jokes,” Elizabeta appeared to hesitate for a moment, thinking.   
“Hmm, that’s odd. Are you sure? That doesn’t sound like Toni at all. I’ve never known him to be mean-spirited,” Lovino sighed, tapping his pen against his desk, hesitating for a moment before deciding to recount the whole story to her. Maybe he would regret sharing his emotions later, but Elizabeta had a presence that made you want to talk, and share more. Maybe this was why she was so good at getting kids to confess they’d been vaping in the bathroom.   
When he was done recounting his side of the story, Elizabeta hummed apologetically. “How strange. I would’ve never thought Antonio would do something like that,” She opened her mouth as if to say more, but before she could speak, the tiny walkie-talkie clipped to her side buzzed, and a staticky, muffled voice said something Lovino couldn’t understand from where he was sitting. “Fine. I’ll be right on it,” She replied into the small device.   
“Well, I’m sorry to cut the conversation short, but another fight broke out at football practice,” Elizabeta rolled her eyes, emphasizing the word ‘another’, and turned to leave. Lovino nodded knowingly.   
“Let me guess. Alfred Jones and Ivan Braginsky?” Elizabeta paused for a moment, turning back.   
“Actually, yes. How did you know?”   
“Both of them are in my first period class,”   
“Oh no,” Elizabeta let out a small laugh. “I feel sorry for you. We always have problems with those two,” She replied. “Neither of them are bad kids, I don’t think, but together they’re a recipe for trouble,” Lovino nodded in agreement, giving a small wave goodbye as Elizabeta left the classroom.   
~  
By the time Elizabeta got to the football field, the coach had already resolved the conflict, so she began to head over to the culinary room to report what she had heard to Francis. It was odd though, she was fairly certain Toni didn’t have a girlfriend, and she was almost one hundred percent certain he was head over heels for Lovino, and would never play a prank like this anyways.   
When she reached the culinary room, she knocked gently on the door before entering. Francis was at his desk, marking up papers with a red pen. He glanced up, before grinning and setting down his pen down. “Eliza, mon ami! What brings you to my classroom today?”   
Elizabeta smiled in greeting and walked up to Francis. “Well, I talked to Mr. Vargas, and I found out why he’s mad at Toni. Does Antonio have a girlfriend, or significant other?”   
Francis arched a thin eyebrow at her. “Of course not. You’ve been actively trying to set him up, remember?” Eliza tucked her hair behind her ear. “That’s what I thought. But Lovino said that he went to admit his feelings and overheard Toni talking to his girlfriend, though it doesn’t sound like he saw anything, only overheard a conversation,”   
Francis paused for a moment, taking in the information. His eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he mulled over what Elizabeta had said. Talking to a girlfriend? But Antonio was single, incredibly so. No one had ever held his affections except for Lovino and-   
Francis shot up in his chair and slammed his hands on the desk. “The turtles!”   
“What?”   
He looked to Eliza, the full stupidity of what Antonio had done sinking in. “Toni has these pet turtles that he loves more than anything. I’m willing to bet he called his brother and forced him to put his turtles on the line or something,” Elizabeta opened her mouth as if to object, but closed it. “You know what? Antonio would probably do something like that,”   
Francis shook his head and sighed. “Tomorrow afternoon, I’ll go explain everything to Mr. Vargas,” Elizabeta nodded.   
“Well, call me if you have any issues with that, and I can go up and talk to him,” Francis sighed again and gently rubbed his temples. Antonio had always been one of his dearest friends, but sometimes he could be such an idiot.   
~  
Francis walked up to the classroom in determination, cursing Antonio. Of all the stupid things he did that could’ve messed up the relationship, this was by far the stupidest. As he walked up the stairs to the physics classroom, he saw that Antonio was also going up the stairs. Francis’s heart dropped. If Antonio went up there without knowing what he did wrong, he would almost definitely ruin the relationship further.   
However, as he raced ahead to stop one of his best friends from almost certain doom, he saw that Alfred was with Antonio, leading him to the door. Francis watched on in shock as Alfred began to shove Antonio into the classroom before he could do anything to stop it.   
“Wait, this isn’t the football coach’s room, hang on a moment, I-” Panic spread across Antonio’s face as he realized what room he was being forced into.   
“Sorry dude, but I owed Feli a favour. No hard feelings, business is business, ya know?” And with that, Antonio had been forced into the classroom. Becoming exponentially worried, Francis rushed up to the open door of the classroom, only to see Mr. Vargas’s angry face and Antonio’s panicked one.   
“Listen here, I don’t know what’s going on between you two, but you need to get your shit together before I have an aneurysm,” Alfred called out, catching the attention of the two teachers. “I don’t care how y’all feel about each other, just figure something out before I fail physics,” Alfred began to walk out, but quickly turned back when he reached the door. “Y’all are gonna be locked in here, so you better work things out,”   
Francis watched as Alfred slammed the door, and locked it with a key he got from God-knows-where. Once finished, Alfred turned to walk down the stairs, only to come face to face with a rather upset Culinary teacher.   
“Oh. Hey, Mr. Bonnefoy,” He smiled sheepishly, clearly knowing he was in immense amounts of trouble. The frown on Francis’s face deepened, and he held out his hand.   
“Alfred. Give me the key now, and I can think about giving you only two lunch detentions,”   
Alfred nervously chewed on his lip. “Of course, let me get it,” He slowly reached into the pocket he had put the room key in, before suddenly screaming, “Plan B! Braginsky! Catch!” He quickly grabbed the key from his pocket and launched it over the railing. Francis whipped his head around to see Ivan dart out and grab the key out rom the air, racing across the courtyard, the key now in hand. He paused for a moment, and held up the key for Alfred to see. Alfred’s grin widened, and Ivan continued on his race across the yard.   
“Alfred!” Francis hissed, glaring at the boy as he yelled over the railing.   
“Run! Run! They can’t catch you if you run fast enough!” Alfred then calmly turned to Francis, a mischievous smirk plastered across his face. “So how many detentions do I get for this?” Francis blinked slowly, almost impressed with the kid. “I guess we’re going to take a trip to Ms. Héderváry’s office now?”  
Francis furrowed his brow, crossing his arms. “You guessed right. Come with me,” Alfred only shrugged, and peacefully followed him down to the front office.   
~  
Panicked, Antonio looked around the room, eyes going everywhere except for Lovino, who was emitting a long string of profanities, in both Italian and English. He felt like a puppy being scolded, while not knowing what he did wrong. He was startled by Lovino slamming his pen into the front desk.   
“I swear to God, that piece of shit is going to fail his midterms!” Lovino growled, brows furrowed in anger. Antonio winced and bit his lip nervously. Suddenly Lovino’s eyes fell on him, anger burning inside them. Antonio’s eyes widened and he stepped back a bit, holding his hands up in an attempt to diffuse the situation.   
“Ay, listen, I’m sorry for being too forward and making you uncomfortable. I’m not very good at detecting the mood, and I must have misread your signals,”   
Lovino’s eyes burned brighter, and his face heated up anger twisting his features even more. “Misread my signals? Misread my signals?! Jesus fuck, what signals did you think I was putting out? ‘Please continue to fuck with and be a total douche to me’?” Lovino’s mouth twisted into a snarl and he turned away from Antonio. “You toyed with my emotions for a stupid fucking prank,”   
Antonio opened his mouth to apologize again, but stopped. “Prank?” His brow furrowed in confusion.   
Lovino turned to face him. “Oh, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Sending me those goddamn letters and gifts when you have no actual feelings for me,” Lovino hissed. “You even have a girlfriend, for fuck’s sake!” He yelled, waving his hands around in anger.   
“...Girlfriend?” Antonio said, becoming more confused by the second. Lovino huffed and looked aside.   
“I went to talk to you a week or two ago, but you were calling someone, talking about how much you loved them or something,” Antonio mulled this over in his head for a few moments before speaking again.   
“Lovi, I don’t know what you heard, but I promise it wasn’t what it seemed. I swear I meant everything I wrote, every gift I gave,” He slowly began to approach, seeing that Lovino was calming down. “Please believe me. You’re my sun, my light. I would never do something like that to you,”   
Antonio’s eyes seemed so wide, so sincere, Lovino allowed him to place his hand on his shoulder. “A-are you sure?” Lovino muttered, his voice cracking as tears threatened to spill out. Antonio nodded, and suddenly swept Lovino into a hug.   
“I promise,” He murmured into Lovino’s hair. At first Lovino tensed at the hug, but he soon relaxed and tentatively wrapped his arms around Antonio’s midriff. At this Antonio squeezed him tighter, and Lovino felt all his emotions be swept away by the wave of relief and comfort that came from hugging Antonio. He smelled like earth and spanish spices, like taking a nap under a shady tree on a hot day.   
Lovino pulled away slightly, just enough so he could face Antonio. “What about when we were in college, then?” Lovino looked up to him, angry tears still left in the corners of his eyes.   
“College?” Antonio stopped for a moment, blinking. “Did I even go to college?” He thought back, trying to recall any hazy memory of college he may have.   
Lovino snorted. “Antonio, of course you did. You’re a teacher and have a degree in both teaching and Spanish. Of course you went to college, you dumbass,” Lovino let out another small laugh, and buried himself deeper in Antonio’s chest, enjoying the feeling of warmth and safety Antonio’s strong arms provided.   
~  
When they reached the front office, Francis gave a short knock on Elizabeta’s door, before pushing it open. Eliza looked up from the papers on her desk. “Oh, Francis,” She noticed the irritation in his features, and her brows furrowed slightly. “Is everything alright? Why is Alfred with you?” She said, noticing the teenage boy standing behind Francis. Francis grit his teeth and stepped to the side of the doorway.   
“I think Alfred can explain that for himself. I have things I need to take care of,” Francis huffed, and turned to walk away, leaving Alfred standing alone by the front door. Elizabeta raised her eyebrow at him, curious as to what he did to make the laid-back culinary teacher so irritated.   
Alfred met her stare and smiled sheepishly, walking into the office. “What’s up, Mrs. Héderváry?” He said, sitting down in the chair before her desk, letting the door shut behind him.   
Elizabeta sighed. “What did you do this time, Alfred?” He let out a small laugh and scratched the back of his neck.   
“Well, long story short, I may or may not have jacked the master key off of one of the janitors and used it to lock two teachers in a room together- by the way, you should really change that. School doors really shouldn’t be lockable from the outside, but anyways-” Alfred trailed off.   
Elizabeta placed her hands together and blinked slowly. “So you’re in here because you locked two faculty members in a room, and I assume, got rid of the key?”   
Alfred nodded. “Pretty much,” She sighed again, this time even louder.   
“You really have outdone yourself, Mr. Jones. I can confidently say I’ve never had a student do this before. Was there a reason for this?” Alfred hummed and absentmindedly popped his knuckles.   
“Well, it’s basically because Mr. Vargas and Mr. Fernandez Carriedo have some serious sexual tension and it’s hurting my physics grade, so I locked them in a room so now they have to work things out,”   
Elizabeta took a moment to process this, and then let out a small laugh despite her efforts to keep a straight face. So Alfred had been playing matchmaker too? Almost all of her anger at the teenage boy evaporated. Just as she was about to say something more, her phone chimed.   
Quickly looking at it, she saw it was from Francis. Apparently the only janitor on campus was missing their master key, and she needed to come up and unlock the door. She stood up, and placed her phone back in her pocket. “Well, Alfred, I’ll make a deal with you. I have to go up there and unlock the door, so I’ll let you get off free for this infraction if your matchmaking scheme actually worked,”   
Alfred perked up. He really couldn’t afford getting in trouble again, lest he loose his spot on the football team. Elizabeta gave a small smile upon seeing Alfred’s reaction. “Well, let’s go then. I’m sure Mr. Bonnefoy won’t want to wait long,” She said, beckoning for Alfred to follow her.  
~  
The janitor shrugged apologetically at Francis. “I’m sorry, but my master key to the classrooms appears to be missing. Principal Héderváry has one though,” Francis nodded in understanding at the poor janitor, becoming more stressed by the minute. The longer he had to wait to unlock the door, the worse things would be for Antonio. Well, at least now he knew where Alfred got the key. Francis sighed and began to text Eliza to come open the door.   
~  
When she finally arrived, Alfred was following her. Francis huffed, still mad at Alfred. “Why is he still here?” He shook his head and sighed. “Nevermind. Just please, open the door,” He stepped aside to allow Elizabeta through. She slowly turned the key in, letting the door swing open noiselessly.   
The lack of yelling was suspicious, and all three of them peeked into the classroom as silently as they could. A wide grin spread across Elizabeta’s face as she looked in. Antonio and Lovino were locked in a tight embrace, clinging to each other as if the world was ending. Francis stood in shock, and Elizabeta let out a barely audible, yet high-pitched, squeal. Francis closed the door softly as not to disturb them, and turned back to face Alfred and Elizabeta.   
“Mon Dieu. I can’t believe Antonio managed to pull that one off,” Elizabeta clasped her hands together and squeaked.   
“I know! Oh, they’re so perfect together!” She looked to Alfred, who was checking his phone and fidgeting. “Well, I guess your little plan did work. As promised, no consequences for the stunt you pulled with the keys,” She beamed.   
“Okay, cool, can I go home now? I uh-” A soft pink blush spread across Alfred’s face. “I promised someone I’d go do something,” Elizabeta nodded, and almost immediately, Alfred was taking the stairs down two at a time, while his fingers flew across the phone keyboard. Elizabeta turned back to face Francis.   
“We did it!” She hummed, clapping her hands together softly. Francis, still recovering from the shock of seeing Antonio pull it off perfectly, nodded.   
“We really did, didn’t we?” Francis sighed, and began to walk down the stairs with Eliza. “Antonio better appreciate this, he earned it,” He smiled and shook his head, happy for Antonio nevertheless.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading my story! Comments and Kudos are appreciated :> I may write a sequel to this, focusing on another relationship touched on in this story like FrUk or RusAme. This is officially the longest story I've ever written, and it took me about two months(due to procrastination and school). I'm actually super proud, not gonna lie :>


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